Johannesburg - A court official and two policemen appeared in the Britz Regional Court for allegedly freeing two Zimbabweans after they were arrested in a R270m drug bust and denied bail, the North West public safety department said on Friday.

"The three suspects are alleged to have faked warrants of detention in order to, against the directive of the court, release two Zimbabwean nationals.

"The court had expressly denied them bail as they were a flight risk," said spokesperson Lesiba Kgwele.

Emmanuel Masara and Standton Musumburi were "released on bail" of R500.

The pair were arrested in 2007 along with Alfred Campbell, Warren Gillespie, Mariaan Walsch and Warwick Walsch, for the alleged manufacture of "ice" at the Mooinooi farm.

"When the two were due to appear... the court was shocked [that they were out on bail] and immediately issued a warrant for their arrest," he said.

"More arrests are imminent... there was collusion from inside the court and the police outside."

The court official and policemen appeared in court on Thursday on charges of defeating the ends of justice and the case was postponed to November 2.

Public Safety MEC Howard Yawa commended the police for their arrest of the three.

"The war against crime starts with cleaning our own house so that criminals know that none of us are on their side, the battle lines are drawn, there is no place in the justice crime prevention and security environment for police and court officials who facilitate escapes of suspects from custody," he said.

Johannesburg - A four-year-old girl on Tuesday helped Pretoria police to arrest her own parents for allegedly dealing in dagga.

Police went to a house in Nelmapius, east of Pretoria, on Tuesday morning after being tipped-off about someone selling dagga to pupils of two schools in the area, spokesperson Jan Shawane Sepato of the Silverton SAPS said.

"When police got to the house they smelled someone was smoking dagga and asked the man why they were smoking dagga with two small children in the house."

Hearing the word "dagga", the four-year-old apparently immediately told the police she knew where the dagga was.

"The child showed us the husband's two boots and we found 43 balls of dagga in there," Sepato said.

The girl then apparently said large bags of dagga had already been taken away from the house."We searched the house and found more dagga in the wardrobe."

The 63-year-old father of the girl, and his wife, 46, were arrested for possession of and dealing in dagga. They would appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court soon.

Sepato said the four-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother were left in the custody of their 15-year-old sister.

Johannesburg - Three people were arrested after a raid on a house in Wonderboom uncovered a magic mushroom plantation with a street value R40m, Pretoria police said on Monday.

The task team from the Pretoria dog unit visited the home of a 27-year-old fashion design student in Pierneef around 18:00 on Sunday, where they found a small lunch box filled with magic mushrooms and dagga, Captain Colette Weilbach said.

"The information we gathered there took us to a house in Wonderboom South and on searching the premises, we found one of the biggest magic mushroom plantations and laboratories we've ever come across," she said.

"In each room we found cupboards of dagga, hung up to dry, containers of magic mushrooms and jars full of ingredients."

Police arrested a 55-year-old woman on the scene, and following information from her, they were able to arrest the "main brain" of the operation in Lanseria around 22:00, Weilbach said.

All three suspects are in custody and expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

The latest arrests followed a series of drug busts conducted in the area since last Wednesday, Weilbach said.

"In summary we have arrested 12 people since last Wednesday, searched six premises, closed down three magic mushroom labs and recovered R50.5m of drugs."

Smith said: "He blew a gasket, but it's all been resolved now. You cannot have a situation where councillors are being sought by the police to be arrested. Why should politicians be different from other members of the public?"

Last month, Smith was "clobbered with adverse reaction" for a bylaw making a dog a potential nuisance and its owner subject to a fine if - controversially - it barks or howls for more than six minutes an hour.

He said the six-minute rule would put the onus on complainants to prove the nuisance, thus reducing the number of gripes and wasted police visits.

He has teams of homeless people employed to clean up graffiti in Sea Point and collect dog droppings.

Rejecting national calls to integrate metro police with the SAPS, Smith has created a dozen specialised units of just six or 10 members , including the undercover traffic "Ghost Squad", "Problem Buildings" unit and "Drug-Busters".

Berlin - A 81-year-old German woman dubbed the "Drogen-Oma" ("Drug Granny") in the local underground scene was jailed for five years on Tuesday after admitting to dealing heroin.

Christa Koehler, who is confined to a wheelchair and who will reportedly serve out her sentence in the hospital wing of a jail because of heart problems, admitted selling eight bags of around 50g each.

She began dealing in the Nuremberg area of southern Germany after her son was arrested and caught by police with heroin and €16 400 in cash.

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